Realization
by Blurasxbery
Summary: Kaede thinks about her feelings for Yuzu.


**Hi! I'm quite new to writing fanfiction, although I've read lots of it. This is my first fanfiction, so I know it might be bad. But please do read and tell me what you think!**

**Enjoy!**

_Beep. Beep._

Kaede opened her eyes, tiredly reaching over to shut her alarm clock off. She blearily rubbed her eyes as her bedroom came into focus. Her room was a mess, with leftover cookie crumbs on the floor and juice stains on her bed. She was reminded of her siblings, who trashed the place last night. Apparently, they had forgotten to clean up. Kaede sighed, and sat up as she stretched her arms.

She stood up and walked over to her dresser, stepping on some crumbs in the process. She didn't notice as she attempted to brush her hair and teeth simultaneously. Once she spit out the toothpaste and rinsed, she wriggled out of her pajamas and put on her uniform, smoothing out any wrinkles that may have appeared. After clipping up her hair, she checked the mirror to make sure she looked at least presentable, and grabbed her school bag.

As she walked down the stairs, she realized she was running late and that everyone was waiting for her. She wearily muttered a couple of good mornings to her parents, not speaking to her siblings to get the message across that she was angry. She stuffed down a piece of toast and was still chewing when she reached her friends.

"Geez, what took you so long Kaedeko?" Kotone asked while she was playing with a not very amused Shizuku's hair.

"Sorry, I kind of slept in…" Kaede answered Kotone's question, even though at the moment she seemed to be more occupied with teasing Shizuku. Kaede turned to greet Haruka and Yuu, and looked around for Yuzu. She was surprised to find that she wasn't there.

"Huh? Where's Yuzu?" Kaede questioned, turning over to Yuu.

Yuu replied, "I'm not sure. Maybe Yuzu-chan is sick?"

"I hope she's okay – W-wahh!" Shizuku threw in, wincing as Kotone playfully pinched her cheeks. Haruka was busy fangirling over the cute couple, as Yuu was trying to calm down her friend, but failing.

"Oh…" Kaede was a bit lost in the ensuing madness, and she wondered why because this was a daily occurrence. As she and her four friends walked to school, the girls in pairs still in their own worlds, Kaede was feeling bored without her friend with her.

Everyone entered the classroom, which was already filled with students chatting with their classmates. The five girls were barely on time as they made way to their seats.

The teacher shushed the classroom and everyone pulled out their supplies, ready to start the lesson. Kaede found herself unable to concentrate, thinking about the prank she would've played on Haruka if Yuzu were there. She missed the feeling she would get when Yuzu berated her, when she would call her out on her actions. It was weird, but Kaede really liked the sound of Yuzu's voice. She liked being with Yuzu. She liked Yuzu.

Wait, what?

The sound of the chalk scraping against the blackboard pulled her out of her thoughts. The page number for the math textbook was written on the board, and everyone (except for Yuu, who was sleeping) was already working on it. Sighing, she opened her notebook and absentmindedly started doodling.

The ringing bell startled her, signaling the end of the period. When she looked down, she saw a drawing of Yuzu. She quickly closed her notebook and grabbed her stuff, making way to her next class. She didn't want to go to English class – she was bad at it anyway. If only Yuzu was here, she could ask for her notes and chat with her. Sure, she had her other friends, but her bond with them wasn't as strong as the one she had with Yuzu. School just wasn't the same without her childhood friend.

Brushing past people in the hallway, she made her way into the classroom door and sat down at her desk. Handouts to read were already being passed around, but Kaede was too busy staring at the empty desk in front of her to notice.

"Ikeno-san?"

Startled out of her thoughts, she hurriedly replied, "Y-yes sensei?"

"We're on paragraph four, may you please read it?" At this point, the whole class was staring at her.

"Oh, I'm sorry…" Kaede apologized as a couple of students giggled. When she was done, she sat back down in her seat and the next student began reading.

She felt a poke on her side, and saw a female student with a note for her.

"Ikeno-san, it's from Minami-san." The girl whispered to her, giving her the note.

Kaede mumbled a thank you and opened the sheet of paper.

_Are you all right? You seem a bit out of it._

_~Shizuku_

She turned around to face Shizuku at the back, who gave her a worried look. She nodded her head and smiled, indicating that she was fine. This seemed to put her friend at ease, at least for the moment.

For the remainder of the day, she was unable to focus on anything, tripping over her own feet on several occasions and nearly falling down the stairs. She felt sluggish, even at the student council meeting, which required full attention.

She had many of her friends ask if she was feeling well, to which she responded that she was fine. None of them seemed to buy her excuse, which was strange. She was usually good at faking for all of her pranks, so why did no one believe her?

She felt relieved when the long school day ended, happy to get away from all the questioning peers. She met up with her friends, who were waiting.

"Hey guys!" Kaede called to them, waving her hand.

Haruka was on the phone, and appeared to be talking to someone. "Yea. Yea. Mhm. Thank you, goodbye." She ended the call, and looked over to Kaede.

"Yuzu-chan's mother said that she's sick, and I told her you'd be visiting her. Is that okay?" Haruka asked her.

"Eh? Oh, yea that's fine, but aren't any of you guys going to visit her too?" Kaede looked around to her friends, who lowered their heads in apology.

Shizuku spoke first, "I'm really sorry! I promised Kotone I'd go shopping with her." The girl in question was standing beside her with a slightly guilty, but mostly happy expression. "We'll go visit her later though. Right, Kotone?" Shizuku elbowed her, waiting for a response.

Kotone answered back, "Yea, we'll go later, but I'm certain she'll be fine with you Kaedeko~" Kotone carelessly threw her arms around the blushing Shizuku while saying this, obviously more content with going on her date with her.

While Kotone and Shizuku were engrossed in their own world, Yuu told Kaede her reason for not coming, "Haruka and I are gonna go to a family outing with my parents. I know Yuzu-chan is sick, but Haruka really wants to meet my parents, for some reason…" Yuu glanced questioningly at Haruka, who shied away from her prying eyes. "Anyway, we're sorry we can't come with you!"

"Ah, don't worry about it! I'm sure she's fine anyway, this is Yuzu we're talking about." Kaede replied, with a hint of doubt in her voice.

Yuu looked skeptical, "Well, ok, but call Haruka's cell if you need anything from us and maybe we can do something."

"Yea, thanks." Kaede waved to her friends as they got in their parent's cars to get driven home.

As she walked over to Yuzu's house, she was curious when her friends got so good at observing her behavior. She realized that maybe her friends were slowly maturing, and getting better at analyzing. Before they knew it, they'll all be graduating from high school and moving on to college. Time was short, and they had to make the best of it. She wondered if any of them were going to get married.

_Probably to each other, _Kaede mused, thinking of her friends in wedding dresses with her and Yuzu as bridesmaids. Then Yuzu popped up in her mind.

Would… Yuzu grow up, get married and have kids? She didn't know if Yuzu even liked boys – she never showed any hints. She didn't even know if she liked girls either. What if Yuzu grew up and they drifted apart… for good? A sense of dread filled her. She knew they would have to separate one day, but she didn't want that to happen. How could just one day without Yuzu make her feel this depressed? She couldn't figure out why and it frustrated her – she was supposed to be the intellectual one.

When she finally reached Yuzu's house, there were no cars in the driveway. It appeared that her parents left the house for something. She walked up to her door and went straight inside. She didn't care if it was rude – she had been here so many times that Yuzu was used to it.

She threw off her shoes and called out, "Hey Yuzu~ I came to check on you!" Kaede heard coughing from upstairs, and loud sneezes.

Kaede winced, _ouch. That's got to hurt. _She made her way up the stairs, and opened Yuzu's bedroom door.

Inside, Yuzu was curled up in bed, and several tissues littered the floor. Her face looked a bit green.

"H-hi," Yuzu greeted her. She had a slightly nasally voice, but didn't sound too sick.

Kaede walked over to her bed, making sure not to be too loud. "You don't look so great. Did you get any medicine?" Kaede asked her, putting her hand to Yuzu's forehead.

Yuzu sniffed, "No, not yet. My parents just left to get some. They knew – " She paused to cough into her arm, "They knew that you were coming, so they left to buy some other things too."

Kaede's face showed comprehension, and she sat down on the floor beside her bed, brushing away the tissues. "So, anything I can get you?"

"No, you don't have to." Yuzu answered, "Did anything happen in school today?"

"Nope~ I did sleep in a little though~" Kaede shifted to a more comfortable position on the floor, bringing her knees up.

Yuzu laughed a little, "That's unexpected. I thought you were part of the student council. It's your responsibility to not be late, right?"

"Geez, It was that one time, okay?" Kaede joked back as she lightly hit her shoulder. Talking to Yuzu made her feel instantly better, and more relaxed.

"Yea, yea." Yuzu replied, running her hands through Kaede's hair.

Kaede blushed from this gesture. Yuzu was acting different today. It could have been because she was sick, but she never acted like this. She looked up at Yuzu, who was staring down at her with a gentle expression. It made her feel all tingly inside, which only served to make her blush harder. Why… why did she feel like this?

Her mind brought her back to when her friends casually flirted together. Haruka and Yuu, Kotone and Shizuku… Those girls were obviously in love with each other. They were a group of six friends, and four of them were paired off already. Which left… Her eyes widened in realization.

Could she be in love with Yuzu?

Thinking about it now, it made sense. They had known each other since elementary, and she was always thinking about Yuzu. Even today, she was only gone for a day and she couldn't stop thinking about her. They were always together too, so somewhere along the way she must have developed feelings for her.

But what if Yuzu didn't like her back? She had no idea what to do if that were to happen. The thought of Yuzu rejecting her made her sick.

She didn't know what to do…

Sometime during her inner monologue, Yuzu had fallen asleep with her hand still resting on Kaede's head. She peered at the girl on the bed, her chest slowly rising up and down.

Kaede gently lifted Yuzu's hand off and stood up, staring at the girl for a bit. As she gazed at her longingly, something inside told her to just go for it.

_You could kiss her now. _

She tried to decide against it, but try as she might, her desires won over.

Without thinking, she closed her eyes and slowly moved towards her, lightly brushing her own lips against her sleeping friend's. She gently pulled back, basking in the moment for just a little while longer.

"Goodnight, Yuzu." She whispered, and gently tiptoed out of the room.


End file.
